In the current world of advertising, movies and television, special effects can make or break a product. Computers are being used more and more all the time to create special effects, and users, as well as viewers, are becoming more discriminatory in what they will accept when it comes to what they see and create.
Computer authoring tools are one way users can add special effects to images. Special effects may include a fade in or fade out and a wipe right, etc. The currently available authoring tools have a rather inflexible approach to the creation of special effects due inherently to the methods used to draw an image.
For example, authoring tools like Director by Macromedia, Premiere by Adobe and Freelance Graphics by Lotus Development Corp. only support a limited number of pre-programmed transitions/dissolves. These tools typically use either an algorithm or a table to make transitions/effects. These limited number of effects are coded into the product's tools, and the user is unable to create any others.
The tools that use an algorithm are hard pressed to do anything beyond a simple transition. For example, if the user wants an image to transition into view by way of several spirals and a star, the math for computing such a display is both time consuming and complex. The level of complexity increases as any other characteristic, such as opacity, is added to when the image pixel is to become visible.
The tools that use a table method require a fixed table specifying when each image pixel is to become visible. Additional tables must be added for each and every other characteristic the user wants the image to display. These tables must be prepared and stored in the program for use when a transition is desired.
Thus, there is a need for a simple to use method and system for adding user defined transition patterns to create special effects.